Wisconsin soundly defeats Houston Baptist

MADISON — The Wisconsin Badgers sprinted out to an early lead that they never relinquished against the Houston Baptist Huskies at the Kohl Center on Saturday night.

Ethan Happ recorded a double-double, registering 15 points and a team-high 12 rebounds. In the process, the redshirt senior forward broke UW’s career rebounds record.

Redshirt junior guard Brevin Pritzl rebounded from a rough shooting performance against Xavier, scoring a team-high 17 points and connecting on all five attempts from the field.g

Wisconsin (3–0) shot 66.7 percent from the field in the first half (20 of 30) while only taking six three-point attempts (making three) and recording 32 points in the paint.

In contrast, Houston Baptist (1–2) only made nine of 29 field-goal attempts (31 percent), two of 11 from deep, in the first 20 minutes.

After the Huskies brought the game within 7–5 with 16:53 remaining in the first half, the Badgers went on a 15–3 run in just under four minutes. That was a small part of a larger 33–10 run after a Trevor Anderson layup gave the Badgers a 40–15 lead with 6:21 remaining in the first half.

For the game, UW made 35 of 58 shots (60.3 percent), but only hit seven of 18 (38.9 percent) from three-point range. Houston Baptist shot 38.6 percent (22 of 57) on the evening.

If there was one stat to nitpick for Wisconsin, it would be the 10 turnovers committed. Heading into the game, the Badgers had 12 combined in the first two contests.

Redshirt sophomore guard D’Mitrik Trice continued his solid shooting to start the season, contributing 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting, 3-of-6 from three-point range. Sophomore Nate Reuvers connected on 15 points as he shot 5-of-8 from the field, while another forward, senior Charles Thomas IV, contributed 10 points and six rebounds.

Ian DuBose scored a game-high 19 points on seven of 12 shooting for Houston Baptist. Jalon Gates contributed 12 points (4-of-8 from the field).

Wisconsin heads south to the Bahamas for the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament coming up this week. The Badgers will face Stanford on Wednesday (1:30 p.m. CT, ESPN or ESPN2).